The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-12-20
EATING Pop CORN.
The Latest Fad i'm Sedalia's
Hungry and Hustling
Humanity.
An Everyday Scene Told I'm an
Off-Hand, Everyday
Manner.

|" uOCsCA Has poocCO tAC SOIHCi vi
Third and Ohio streets any fair day
during the past month or two, has not
failed to notice a red box bearing UP d
ease covered three sides with glass,
upon which sides are painted in bold
letters, "Hot Pop Corn, &C." This is
enc of the institutions Of the city.
The plant consists of the aforenen-
toned glass and wooden cases, a
three-burner gasoline lamp, and at
night gasoline torch TO light up the
surrounding gloom.
Perhaps not more than ten or fifteen
dollars are represented in the capital
required to establish the business, but
the receipts flow in
IN "A STEADY STREAM,
and the dividends are larger every
week, may be, than the estimated cost
Of the plant. Various wooden and
tin vessels sit around outside the
wooden base of the building, and a
tin pan, oblong in shape, and, say,
eight by fourteen inches in size and
six inches deep, swings from a hook
ever the three burners. The bottom
Of this pan is composed of fine wire
netting, the meshes being small enough
to prevent grain of pop corn from
falling through. A cover of the
same material keeps the corn from
popping out at the top. A handle to
the pan serves to keep both operator
and grains of corn busy, shaking
things up in the process of popping.
EVERY SCHOOL BOY AND GIRL
in Sedalia is acquainted with the
nature and peculiarities of pop corn
when it is dry, and subjected to a
high degree of heat, the smooth, al
most round grain bursts into a pure
white, fluffy mass of delicious sweet
ness. Hardly one of them but has
watched the antics of the grain in the
little ten-cent pepper over the kitchen
fre. And with what glee they watch
. stray grain that by chance had es-
capped its prison doors and slipped
down quietly to lie at ease, and in un-
disturbed peace, on the hotstove.plates.
Quietly enough it lies there, seeming
to
WINK AT IT'S LATE COMPANIONS
popping so vigorously and wildly
jumping about in the wire cage near
by. Suddenly it gives little, spas
modic shiver, and then, without fur
Their warning, it bursts into white
ball three or four times its normal
size, and flying, perhaps, across the
room, over the heads of the semi-circle
of youngsters, gazing intently at the
pepper in the hands of "a vigorous boy.
What fun then, the scrambling for
this one stray grain, for is it not true
that whoever captures and eats it will
kiss or be kissed by his or her sweet
heart before the evenings sport is
ever
PREPARED FOR EATING.
The plant at the corner of Third
and Ohio is the property of j. III.
Franklin, who bought il some time
ago Of the founders, Messrs. Wagner
& Ward. and has been running it,
when the weather would permit, since.
About half gallon.iof Egrains are
put in the pan at one time, the pan
suspended from the hook over the
blazing burners, and kept in a vigor-
GUS shake, like an Arkansaw swamp
dwelIer with case of ague. The
shaking continues until the pan is full
of the fine, white balls. The mass is
then sprinkled with salt, melted but
ter and sugar poured over it, and it is
put in neat paper bags, about a quart
measure full in each bag. These are
sold at FIVE cents each, and school
children are by no means the only
purchasers.
LADIES DRESSED IN SILKS,
and wearing seal skin cloaks twenty
times the value of the entire outfit,
step up, pay their nickel and COM
placently walk away munching pop
corn. Lawyers, armed with the
majesty of a sovereign nation and a
brace or two Of solid books of law, go
about with the ragged edge of red
and white paper bag sticking from a
side pocket. Business men, unbend-
ing and answering in the solemnity
of their desks and counting rooms,
offer each other "handfuls" as they
pass on the busy thoroughfares.
The police, with one hand
gripped in the collar of
petty breaker of the law and the
other tightly grasping sack of pop
corn, jostle the doctor, the preacher
and idle man about town on the mar
row, muddy crossings. Maidens